The present invention relates to authentication of a smart pen and a computing device, and more specifically, to authentication of such devices before pairing.
Smart pens are defined as pens that include an embedded processor and sensor functionality. Smart pens may be used as traditional pens to write on paper while synchronizing with a computing device to transfer input data of written notes to the computing device. Other forms of smart pens may require a dedicated smart pad that records the handwriting that may be communicated concurrently or at a later time to a computing device.
When using smart pens it is important that their use is dynamic and that the user does not experience any considerable delays when compared to traditional pen and paper. Currently a smart pen is connected to a device by a communication channel, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Connecting to a Bluetooth communication channel can be very time consuming. For example, a user may have to unlock their device, turn Bluetooth on, search for Bluetooth devices, select the smart pen, and input a password to connect to that device.
Smart pens may use Wi-Fi as a communication channel to authenticate and connect to devices. Such devices may only connect to other devices in the same local area network (LAN) if authentication between the devices has been previously established. However, accessible Wi-Fi networks are not always available.
An authentication of a smart pen and a computing device may take place once a connection has been established between the smart pen and the computing device, for example, by exchanging codes or identifiers. This may lead to snooping on a connection by an unscrupulous third party.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to address the aforementioned problems